Birthday Burn
by Aiden Ravelle
Summary: James tries to make money to buy Jessie a present. Rocketshipping


"Ow, shit," James says while looking at the red spot on his arm. "He Melissa, do we have any burn cream?" He asks the manager-in-training after he finishes boxing up the needed fries.

"Yeah, it's in the office," she responds.

The mark on James' arm was growing, but the burn cream helped soothe it a little. He had bumped the fryer basket as he was taking it out of the grease. Even though it hurt, he continued on with his shift, trying to get his 7.25 an hr.

By the end of his shift, the red mass had gone down, but there were clear lines that burned the shape of the basket into his arm.

He signed out of work and stepped outside. He had been working overnights for a few months now trying to make some money to buy a present for his best friend. Her name was Jessie and he was completely in love with her, however, he felt she would never feel the same way.  
They were part of a group called Team Rocket, a group bent on taking over the world. James and Jessie, along with a pokemon named Meowth, never got very far in their plans. He knew they got in trouble a lot and were always getting caught before they could finish their plans. So instead of trying to steal something for Jessie, he decided he would get a job to buy her something.

James' family was rich, but he could not touch the money unless he married a woman he never could love. However, because he had been rich when he was younger, he never had a real job, so he had to take one of the lowest jobs you could get: Fast food worker. Sure the work could be easy, depending on what position you were on, but either you have a bad position, are being treated rudely by customers or you were burning yourself on everything.

Anyway, he had been at this job a few weeks and his friends still did not know. He would sneak out of their camp in the dead of night and come back early in the morning. Because of lack of sleep, caffeine was his new friend to get him through the day while trying to steal pokemon with Jessie and Meowth. He was probably only getting 20 to 30 hours of sleep a week, which wasn't helping him stay focused with their plans. But he knew Jessie's birthday was coming up and he wanted to get her the best present he could find. He had seen a necklace in the jewelry shop in town, but it cost over a thousand dollars.

After sitting on the sidewalk for about half an hour, James got up and started the walk to the camp.

That morning after 2 hours of sleep, he had to act like he was fully rested. He put on his long sleeve Team Rocket shirt and grimaced as the shirt rubbed his wound.

That day they had a lot going on, of course another plan to steal Pikachu. Unfortunately as always the plan did not work. James had done a good job all day of hiding his wound, bearing the pain with a smile on his face. After getting blasted off however, James landed on his arm. "Shit," He muttered after getting up, playing the curse off as them falling as well as them losing again. "Are you guys ok?" He asked his team mates, who decided after checking themselves out that they just had a few bruises.

"James!" Jessie blurted out after standing up.

"What?" He asked panicked at her outburst.

"You are bleeding!"

He looked down at his arm and noticed his sleeve was stained red, "I'm fine."

"No you aren't. There's a lot of blood there. Meowth get the first aid kit."

"No, I'm fine. Seriously Jessie, I'll take care of it."

"You always let me dress your wounds though," she said sadly.

"Here's you go," Meowth said handing the kit to James.

James went and sat down with his back toward the group to hide the wound. However, Jessie had snuck up behind him to check on him. She saw the shape of the wound and knew it couldn't have been from falling.

"James. What happened?" She said worried, he never hid things from her before.

James turned around, surprised when he heard Jessie's voice behind him.

"You've been different lately. Tired, careless, depressed. You try to hide it, but I can tell. What's been going on?"

James let Jessie sit next to her and told her how he got this job and about the burn and how when he fell the burn scab got scraped off and that is why he started bleeding.

"I know we are broke James, but we've always gotten by. Why did you get a job?"

"We only ever just get by. I am sick of it and I know you are too. That's why I got a job. I wanted to get you one thing that makes you happy. One thing that isn't a necessity. I am trying to save up to get you a birthday present."

Jessie had tears in her eyes, which James wiped away and then he looked down at his arm.

"James, I have you. You make me happy. You put up with me, you help me when I fall down, you are always here for me," She lifted his cheek and kissed it, "You make me happy."

James blushed, and replied, "You make me happy Jessie."

"Come on now, let's finish getting you wrapped up," Jessie said. When she was done she stood up and said, "Let's go quit your job."

"But Jessie, I can't just up and quit, can i?"

"You don't need them as a reference for now, so yes, you can just quit."

"But I made friends with some of them."  
"You can be friends outside of work, can't you?"

"I guess." So off they went and James quit and felt so much better. Working overnights had been draining him of all of his energy, and he knew he could get back to his life.

When Jessie's birthday came, Meowth made Jessie breakfast as a present. Instead of going through with a plan, they went out and window shopped and just had fun. When night came, they made smores out by the fire. James sat down next to Jessie after getting them some water in the near-by creek.

"Hey Jessie?"  
"Yea James?"

"You're beautiful."

She blushed, "I don't think so James."

"You are. And I love you." He whispered.

"Oh James, I love you too."

"I got this with the money I made."

He held out a jewelry box, "It's not what I planned to get you, but the color reminded me of you and I thought I might try this… Jessie, will you marry me?"

Jessie opened the box and found a ruby engagement ring. After being overcome with happiness for a minute she replied, "Yes."

"I get to be the best man, right James?" Meowth asked from across the fire, "I always knew you two would end up together."

Jessie and James shared a small kiss before James slipped the ring on Jessie's finger.

"This is the best birthday ever," Jessie confided.

"It was worth all the hard work and this scar," he pointed to his arm, "just to see you smile."

The end


End file.
